Bandoleer packaging is widely used for wrapping articles in succession, ranging from food products to printed matter. A series of interconnected packages is formed by filling and sealing individual lengths of a wrapping material. This leaves a succession of articles encased in a sleeve and separated by closed portions of the sleeve.
The wrapping material, which is usually a plastic film, is formed into the sleeve by a continuous longitudinal seal; and the closed portions of the sleeve are formed by lateral seals. The seals are formed by heat and pressure. The closed portions of the sleeve are often perforated so the wrapped articles can be individually detached from the bandoleer.
Bandoleers have been used with automated insertion machines that dispense wrapped articles into larger packages. The bandoleers function as belts for transporting the wrapped articles at a fixed spacing through the machines. The individual wrapped articles of the bandoleer are disconnected in succession and are inserted into a registered succession of the larger packages.
Similar wrapped articles have also been affixed to the exterior of larger packages or other substrates. Although bandoleers are a convenient way of wrapping a series of such articles, manual steps have been required to detach, glue, and affix each article individually to the larger package. Such steps are too time consuming and labor intensive to be sustained for high levels of production.